A car advert featuring Brad Pitt has been banned in Malaysia because it is "an insult to Asians", according to reports in the country.

The government ordered the ads to be pulled because non-Asian faces would "plant a sense of inferiority among Asians", the county's deputy information minister Zainuddin Maidin told national news agency Bernama.

Aren't our own people handsome enough?

Zainuddin MaidinDeputy information minister

The adverts, for Toyota Altis cars, ran on television, billboards and in newspapers across Asia, and it was reported that the posters became a target for fans who wanted them for their bedroom walls.

"Why must we use their faces in our advertisements?" Mr Zainuddin said, according to the agency.

"Aren't our own people handsome enough?"

He added: "We cancelled the ads because they were considered an insult to Asians."

Pitt, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, was last seen on the big screen as a smooth-talking criminal in Ocean's Eleven.

Aniston's latest film has earned rave reviews

He is married to Friends star Jennifer Aniston, who fell foul of Malaysian censors earlier in the year when they banned an episode of the comedy because they said it would encourage promiscuity.

Aniston has said she expects the show to end, and is planning start a family with Pitt.

In reaction to speculation that the next series of Friends would be the last, Aniston said: "In my mind, I'm done."

"I want to start my family," she told United States magazine Entertainment Weekly.

The Hollywood couple wed in a million-dollar ceremony in Malibu in July 2000.

She won a prestigious Emmy award for best comedy actress for her role in the hit series earlier in the year - but there is talk that she may get more awards for her latest film, The Good Girl.

In it, she plays an adulterous and depressed Texan shop assistant, and the film has taken $14m (£8.75m) at US box offices.

"Aniston is getting the best reviews of her career - the kind of reviews that can lead to Oscar nominations," Time magazine said.